Halftime Ends; Indycar Returns This Weekend

Halftime Ends; Indycar Returns This Weekend

Indycar begins the second half of its all too short season Sunday at Road America. The first half was a combination of strange and wonderful, which has led to several curiosities in the standings and results. The points leader hasn’t won a race, nor has one of the larger teams. Penske drivers have won half the races and small teams have won most of the rest. What will happen in part two?

We may see a return to more normal results with a couple more surprises thrown in. Scott Dixon continues to lead the points despite not having won a race yet. Helio Castroneves, second in points right now, has not won a race either. No one has more than two wins. I can’t remember the last time a season went this long with no one winning more than twice. No driver from Ganassi has won yet while Coyne, Schmidt Peterson, and Rahal all have won races.

Other surprises to me are the disappointing performance of Mikhail Aleshin and the fact that Alexander Rossi hasn’t won a race. I thought at least one of them would have won a race this season. While there is still time, there aren’t many tracks remaining where Honda should do well.

The only constant is Team Penske. Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud each have won once, while Will Power has two victories. should succeed. A win for Will Power at Road America, where he dominated last year, should give him a big boost toward his second title-except for one thing.

Scott Dixon usually begins a season slowly then comes on strong at the end. If he has another strong second half, he could extend his lead significantly. It is not usual for him to be leading the points at this juncture. He can surely hear Power’s footsteps. It is hard to imagine Dixon not winning a race in any year. To maintain his lead, Dixon needs to avoid any more mishaps like he had at Indy and Texas, and take advantage of the tracks that favor the Honda package.

However it turns out, it is going to be a most intriguing eight races. I can’t wait to get started this weekend.

Notes:

A huge shoutout to Dale Coyne Racing crews who got cars together to test at Road America just three days after the carnage at Texas. Coyne has had five cars severely damaged in crashes this season.

Ryan Hunter-Reay has possibly three more shots at finding Victory Lane this year- Iowa, where he has won twice, Pocono, and maybe Gateway. Can his engine hold together for an entire race? If it does, can he avoid getting caught up in someone else’s accident?

I hope Indycar has learned its lesson from Texas and has a couple more tests at Gateway before they race there. The trucks looked awfully fast there Saturday night. The series cannot afford another bad oval show this year.

Le Mans was an incredible race this past weekend. It strengthened my resolve to go there next year.